


Le Petit Popcorn

by darkerclouds



Category: Guns N' Roses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Le Petit Prince Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23784532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkerclouds/pseuds/darkerclouds
Summary: The Little Prince AU that wouldn't leave me alone.Steven is the Little Prince from Planet Popcorn. Duff is the aviator. Izzy is the fox, Slash is the snake and Axl is, well, the rose.
Relationships: Duff McKagan/Axl Rose (implied), Steven Adler/Axl Rose, Steven Adler/Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler/Slash
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	1. The Rose

The beautiful rose bloomed from the planet, bursting vibrant red in front of the little Prince’s face. It echoed down in his heart, just like love. It hurt so good as the petals unfolded one by one and started to sing, quiet and melancholy.

“If you want to love me... then darling, don’t refrain.”

“I love you.” Steven answered earnestly. “But who are you?”

“I’m Axl,” the rose said moodily. “I’m going to make you hurt.”

“But you are beautiful. And you just asked me to love you.”

“Madness only makes sense in song. It won’t last.”

The rose suddenly looked unsure, wrapping itself back around as if to hide from the Little Prince’s piercing blue gaze. They were like two spinning planets of water. Too much gravity to get trapped in. Axl was scared of getting his thorns wet.

“Go,” He suddenly snapped, the tips of his petals darkening in a scowl.

“Just leave me now. I can see you want to.”

“I don’t.”

Steven said honestly. He wanted to hug Axl, thorns and all. But something about the fierce pride in Axl’s trembling frame held him back. Axl was not scared of being hurt. Axl was scared of doing the hurting. 

“Please. I already lost a lover.”

“I’ll go. But where?”

“Where the paper cranes lead you. Where your heart goes when there’s nothing around for it to hold onto & grow. Isolated wilderness, little Stevie. Not here with me.”

Steven leaned up on his tippy-toes and stole a kiss from the rose anyway. Soft and chaste and innocent. His little popcorn curls bounced like sunbeams, tickling Axl’s cheeks that were suddenly wet with dewdrops.

Steven left before Axl could plead him to, once more.


	2. The Snake

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

The snake asked, slithering like endless lock-and-key patterns. mixing and matching in front of Stevie. 

The Little Prince nodded his head harshly, yes, yes. He had been all around the world and none had been as fair as his rose. He could not live without Axl, he realized that now. There was no love without pain and compared to the thought of Axl. nothing hurt much at all.

“You’re being very hasty,” 

The snake warned him.

“I’ve known you longer than any rose. You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Slash. Yeah, I know. So you know what I need.”

“I know how you think,” Slash hissed, not unkindly. “I know a pattern, not a solution. As snakes do.”

"I'm not looking for a solution," Steven said, squaring his shoulders despite the fear twisting in his heart. "I'm looking for love."

"I could do that better," the snake hissed before quickly looking away. All was silent for a moment before the little prince crouched down to eye level with Slash and whispered,

"Just don't trick me, okay?"

"You're insufferable." Slash complained, sounding suddenly a bit childish, before slithering up Steve's arm slow and gentle, pausing to say - "but you can trust me."

And Steven knew he was not lying, for inside the sadness in Slash's eyes there was an apparition of his home - Planet Popcorn. The final bite came easy and gentle; fit for the love of a childhood sweetheart.

"Sweet dreams," Slash whispered as he watched Steven leave his body and fly up, up, and away to his home planet.


	3. The Rose pt.2

Steven wrung his hands at the beautiful rose who still wouldn't let him in.

"You said you'd already lost a lover. But I am not him. Give me a chance! I cannot love anyone else. You're it for me."

"You are not him, yes. You are everything he wants to be."

Axl then sighed and brushed his fingers almost reverently over Steven's curls. His green eyes were filled with the kind of sadness that Stevie instinctively knew was simultaneously the only thing he would ever understand and too deep for him to ever fathom. 

"Let me show you how much I care," Steven pleaded. But Axl shook his head. 

"Stevie, you already have. We are always together. But you being here will make me wilt - I need this whole planet to run wild. I can't let you trap me."

"Trap you? I wouldn't dare,"

Steven was outright sobbing now, Axl soothing him by embracing him with his softest leaves. He looked so many years older and wiser but all the more beautiful for it. Ephemeral, Steven thought, and thought his heart would shatter from the impact of the word.

"You don't have to understand. I just ask you to set me free, and love me from afar. That way we can be together for always. Can you do that for me?"

The little prince looked at the blackening tips of his beautiful rose's petals and leaned over to kiss them. He didn't understand, but he would still do anything.

"For you, Axl - anything."


	4. The Aviator

"I don't know where I went wrong," Steven said, looking devastated. "I thought he'd be happy to see me. Be with me."

"The beautiful are a temperamental sort," replied the aviator, reaching out to put an arm around the much smaller prince.

"And so are you, if you hadn't noticed."

"Me?"

Duff chuckled, reminding him of the sheep and boxes and baobabs. Steven flushed a dark shade of red, much like his rose.

"That's different. I did it for love. He pushes love away."

"That could be his way of doing it for love."

"Ugh, grown ups are so strange."

"Love makes you strange. Actually, I think love makes us grown up - some for the worse, but some... for the better."

Duff trailed off, smiling an odd kind of half-smile at Stevie. And the Little Grown-Up Prince suddenly understood. He stood up abruptly, looking down at the well and all the stars that had pooled there. They all looked dull and unimportant compared to the desert. 

The blackness of the water rippling seemed to echo in his heart, calling out a name. He desperately wanted to say it out loud, but instead turned to Duff and asked -

"Duff, did you ever love a rose?"

Duff grinned, ruffling Steven's hair. 

"I think we all have."


	5. The Fox

"You're back," the Fox said breathlessly when he caught sight of the little prince.

"They told me you'd gone with the snake. I thought you - thought you had..."

Oh, Izzy. Steven's heart that had been so glad up until that moment broke in his chest again. He slowly went up to the fox, expecting him to retreat - but Izzy scrambled up to his side like time had created no distance at all. 

He was so beautiful. How did Steven never notice?

"Did you cry?" Stevie asked, almost scared to hear the answer. Izzy buried his face in Steven's shoulder and nodded.

"Every night. You are irreplacable to me."

Izzy looked at Stevie's smile, a little bit sad but still radiant like the sun, and said - "the color of the wheat - it was never bright enough."

Steven didn't reply, he was too busy enjoying the feeling of the fox curling up on his lap, warm and real and eternal. Izzy looked up at him, big dark eyes full of a sudden fear.

"Are you here to stay?"

"For as long as you'll have me," Steven said, unable to look away. He was overwhelmed. Everything beautiful he had seen in Axl was suddenly in his chest, blooming so much it was getting hard to breathe. 

"Stevie - "

"I'm not going anywhere," Steven said before Izzy could say anything sad because he wouldn't be able to take it. He didn't want Izzy to be sad, ever.

"I can love my rose anywhere. I can only love you here. I want to be here, with you."

The tired Prince curled up to Izzy's side and he finally understood that the rose had only bloomed on his planet because his fox was beautiful and his fox was brave and his fox knew how to love even when there was nothing there to love. 

They blinked up at the stars together and stayed awake the rest of the night telling each other funny stories by connecting all the stars a different way each time.

And now they knew that they would never run out of ways to say I love you.


End file.
